JUDAS PRIEST’s GLENN TIPTON On ‘Redeemer Of Souls’: ‘It’s Nice To Get Back To What People Want To Hear’

JUDAS PRIEST members Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner recently spoke to Ultimate Classic Rock about their forthcoming album, “Redeemer Of Souls”. You can now watch the chat below.

“Redeemer Of Souls”, will be released in North America on July 8 (pushed up a week from the originally announced July 15) via Epic Records. The CD’s title track was made available for purchase via iTunes and other digital service providers on April 29.

“This album has got vikings, dragons, aliens, a bit of bible thumping and some guns,” Halford said.”That’s what you need in a metal record. It’s strong and it’s intense, but there’s a lot of fun and exploration, through at least that side, with the lyrical content.”

The follow-up to 2008’s double-disc concept album “Nostradamus”, “Redeemer Of Souls” is being billed as a return to JUDAS PRIEST‘s heavy-metal roots. “It’s nice to get back to what people want to hear,” Tipton said.”This album just typifies JUDAS PRIEST.”

“We felt it was important to make another classic metal album, which is generally what PRIEST has been famous for over the last 40 years,” Halford added. “We had great success with ‘Nostradamus’, which was something that we’d always wanted to try. I think there was a nice enough space of time, musically, to do a lot of things but primarily just to kind of get all of the pieces into place to make what we feel is one of our best records — with all of the elements of what classic PRIEST stands for.”

Regarding why there are five “bonus” tracks that are included on the deluxe version of “Redeemer Of Souls” and do not appear on the CD’s regular version, Glenn Tipton told the “Trunk Nation” show: “They are all great songs. The reason they are not on the album is because the 13 that we chose are very consistent with what we wanted to do, which was release an undisputable heavy metal album. The others, they are not lightweight by any chance, but they’ve got a different feel, a different texture. So it’s not a case of trying to rip the kids off and trying to get more money for an extra album, it’s just a case of, these five tracks seem to deserve to go on their own CD, and that’s what we did.”

Added Halford: “We didn’t want to drop the energy. From the opening thunder-and-lightning on ‘Dragonaut’ right up ’till the end of ‘Battle Cry’, it’s just full-on, it’s relentless. It’s great.”